Friday, September 25, 2009

You Can Learn How To Play Piano By Ear In Short Order

Have you always imagined yourself playing the piano without the bother of securing and eventually reading from music sheets? Is your vision giving you a problem? Do you desire the skill of playing a tune on the piano solely from listening to it?

It may come as a surprise to you that many excellent musicians didn’t attend formal classes. They discovered how to play piano by ear and possess the skill of repeating tunes they had only listened to.

With the following steps, you too can quickly pick up how to play piano by ear:

1) Get the things you need in order to begin. You can choose from a keyboard or a piano, which has to be in tune. You will be practicing daily so you have to plan not to cram too many things into your schedule.

2) A piano is comprised of 88 keys while a keyboard has less. Counting the regular notes, sharp notes, and flat notes, there would be 12 notes total. The white notes begin with an A note up to the G note. Then it starts all over again with an A note. The notes are repeated 7 times until the white notes are complete. Likewise, the black notes – with its sharps and flats -- are repeated.

3) To find the Note C, also known as the Home Key, locate the white note to the left of the two black keys. In the middle of the keys is the C note. That’s where the C chord is located. Position your right thumb on C, that’s number 1. From that point, count the keys towards the right, including black keys.

As you reach the fifth, put your middle finger on it; that would be the second note of the C chord. Then, count from 5; count the notes to 8. Place your little finger on that key – it’s the final note of the C chord. Play all these notes simultaneously and you’ll find that you’ll make a striking sound.

4) Get to know this sequence by heart…1, followed by 5, and 8 in counting. Remember that when starting a note, count the sharps and flats too. You can use these chords as your base. You may do this too if you desire to begin on a sharp note; this would then be a sharp chord.

5) I can’t overemphasize the importance of practice in learning how to play piano by ear. It won’t be long before you’d find it to be a simple task by continuing to count and listen to the notes. One example would be when the number 5 in the chord falls by 1 key, meaning that you’re now on the number 4 key. As a result, the major chord has turned into a minor.

If in case you’re playing the C chord, you only need to slide your finger one key over to the left to create a C minor chord. You will be able to recognize the difference through their sound by listening. Anyone can spot the tune differences as long as the hearing is perfect.

An Excellent Piece of Advice

Don’t limit your practicing to the middle of the piano or keyboard; you can choose from other keys. Push yourself in practice to not only use 1 or 2 fingers on each hand, but all of them. After getting a first-hand declaration from a professional pianist, you should realize that knowing how to play piano by ear is quite achievable after all.

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